The invention relates to a system for the build-up and reproduction of ultrasonic images on reproduction media comprising at least one reproduction apparatus connected to an image signal processing apparatus to which the image signal produced by an ultrasonic transducer through scanning of an ultrasonographic subject is conveyed for the purpose of image build-up, and which possesses adjustment means which can be actuated manually for the free parameters of the image signal being issued, such as e.g. initial amplification, depth compensation, and dynamic compression.
In ultrasonography, it is frequently desirable to convey the primary ultrasonic image built up on the ultrasonic imaging apparatus to additional reproduction apparatus for example, television monitors, for the purpose of viewing and/or to transfer said primary ultrasonic image to documentation in the form of a magnetic tape, film, or paper image. For this purpose, it is fundamentally possible to transmit via a standards converter, the ultrasonic image from the ultrasonic imaging apparatus to a television monitor, convey it to a video recorder and produce a film, or individual paper images, respectively, by means of image recording apparatus. However, it has been shown that secondary pictures of this type do not achieve the quality of the primary ultrasonic image. In the case of the known systems for the purpose of ultrasonic image production, the operator adjusts the image on the ultrasonic imaging apparatus such that the image contents are capable of being diagnostically optimally evaluated. In order to effect this adjustment, the free parameters of the apparatus for image signal processing, such as e.g. initial amplification, depth compensation, and volume (or dynamic) compression, can be systematically varied. However, since the image build-up--particularly for the purpose of response to medical interrogation--is also dependent upon influencing factors which can only be subjectively determined by the operator, including, e.g., the ambient luminance of the room, the ultrasonic image is not capable of being clearly reproduced in the conventional manner by means of a transmission chain as is the case in television technology, for example. In television transmission chains, a standard signal--e.g. a test image--is directly fed into the video signal line by the television camera (vidicon). However, this is not possible in the case of sonographic image representation, since the ultrasonic image must first be built-up, independently of the image transmission, on the reproduction apparatus; e.g., an oscilloscope which is connected to the image signal processing apparatus. For this reason, an attempt was made to achieve a conditioning of the sonographic transmission path with the aid of the ultrasonic image itself which was to be transmitted and diagnostically evaluated. However, attempts of this sort led to purely fortuitous results and were therefore unsatisfactory in the end.